Why are you displaying the same bar chart both for “America’s top 5 concerns about the government and immigration” and “America’s top 5 man-made disasters?”

vmcnuttchapman

Thanks for catching that. The post has been updated.

Richard I. Garber

Help! I can’t see where the numbers in your bar chart of Top Five Concerns and Worries about Government and Environmental Policy came from. Your caption says those percentages reflect American who are Very Concerned or Very Worried. I have looked in the .doc file containing the Complete Survey Results.
For government corruption you show 67.3%. A table at the bottom of page 42 shows that is the cumulative percent for Refused, Very Worried, and Worried. Why isn’t it just 39.5% for Very worried?
For Industrial pollution of rivers and streams you show 53.5%. A table at the bottom of page 33 shows 29.0% for Very Worried.
For Pollution of drinking water you show 53.5%. A table at the middle of page 33 shows 28.0% for Very Concerned.
For Obamacare you show 46.9%. A table at the middle of page 42 shows 27.3% for Very Worried.
For Toxic waste contaminating water you show 29.8%. A table at the middle of page 34 shows 26.5% for Very Concerned.
I’m also confused by your other bar chart showing Top Five Concerns about Manmade Disasters. Those numbers don’t quite agree, but are pretty close. They also don’t match those in the .pdf file.

For Terrorist attack you show 19.7%. A table at the top of page 39 shows 19.0% for Very Worried. (For Q25.8 page 73 of the pdf file shows 17.0%).

For World war you show 18.5%. A table at the middle of page 41 shows 17.9% for Very Worried. (For Q25.15 page 76 of the pdf file shows 16.3%).

For U.S. decline you show 17.4%. A table at the top of page 41 shows 16.8% for Very Worried.
(For Q25.14 page 75 of the pdf file shows 16.1%).

For Economic collapse you show 16.7%. A table at the top of page 40 shows 16.1% for Very Worried. (For Q25.11 page 74 of the pdf file shows 15.6%)

For Nuclear/biologic attack you show 16.0%. A table at the middle of page 39 shows 15.5% for Very Worried. (For Q25.9 page 73 of the pdf file shows 13.9%).

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Stephen Lemelin

I love what people worry about they are so ill informed and worry about the wrong stuff that could actually cause them problems. Terrorist attack (really go stand in a lightning storm at least you have a chance to get hit, odds are so low it’s amazing with terrorists attacks given population size), World War (Against who? Russia can’t even take back part of the USSR, China is greedy and having major internal issues, I can’t name a third country that would even want to or could vs the US), US Decline (what does that mean? Economically? Militarily? Culturally? The US is 4.4% of the world population in 2008, did we think our advantage from WWII was going to last forever? The world changes sorry you didn’t live in the most economically perfect time in world history. You now only have one of the best standards of living in the world, cry me a river), Economic collapse (yeah it could happen and the whole world would go with the US, do you think the world would let that happen, no. But it would probably mean the standard of living would go down relative to the rest of the world as happened due to the banking crisis of 2008), number 5 is redundant (If it was not terrorists #1, then it would be a nation state and trigger a world war #2, so this is pointless).

Waitforit777

Unless you travel and hear what people in other countries fear or “believe in” you might think we Americans have cornered the market in stupidity.

Stephen Lemelin

Oh how true, it is just amazing that people fear so much, we live in *historically* a very peaceful time, with very low food costs, great medical care (few plagues, low infant mortality, vaccines, longest lifespans, etc, etc), we can communicate worldwide for next to nothing, you could go on and on. I just look back 150 years ago, and things like food, shelter and dying of disease were the big 3. Heck 85 years ago we had a world wide depression, then right into a world war where millions died. 25 years ago we were worried about world wide nuclear war that would have eliminated the species. So I wish people would just put things in a perspective before living a life of fear.

Waitforit777

Yes, a nasty as it sometimes seems, civilization is actually much more civilized than we recognize. However, high season for fear mongering is upon us as election day looms. I suspect that fear is the most potent and urgent motivator in the political operative’s weapon kit. Kennedy’s “Missile Gap,” Reagan’s “Evil Empire,” Shrub’s “Axis of Evildoers,” Cheney’s “Next Mushroom Cloud,” Sarah Palin’s “Putin’s Flyin’ Over My House,” Today’s GOP: “If ISIS don’t get Ya’ the Ebola Will.” I’m thankful I’m not suffocated with terror, but pissed I have to remove my shoes to board an airplane because someone else got frightened.

Robert Eelee

It’s true we live in amazing times. But if you think America is as bullet proof as you make it out to be, I would suggest a re-evaluation. All it would take would be one event, and world sentiment would turn against the US by storm. Even today, world sentiment to the US isn’t exactly friendly. We are used by other countries because of our consumers, freedoms, and economy, and because we have what they want (nice houses, big guns, advanced tech). But disliked and considered impetuous and self-absorbed by most (I have traveled to other countries to know this). We’ve been ticking people off for a long time. Tick off the right country and we’d be in deep caca. On the flip side, our economy is much more fragile than you make out. A trade embargo on oil, for instance, would grind the country to a halt (It’s extremely dangerous and foolish to allow one product to have such a prominent function. Think about what would happen if all the oil and gas was gone!). Further embargoes would mean ruin and riots in the streets. We’ve shipped most of our manufacturing overseas, and our current economy is reliant on consumerism. If products stop coming, or become unaffordable, there’s little left to keep the economy afloat.

I’m not saying to live in fear. I’m advocating a frank look at reality.

George Soros

Lazy stupidity, most of today’s issues can be solved with a little information.

Waitforit777

What, “Cyber Bullying” doesn’t make the cut? We have stupid teens that would rather kill themselves than face a Twitter foe.

Robert Eelee

Something I find interesting is that fear of losing a wife or child (losing in this sense can be to death, dementia, divorce, or dis-ownment, or declining health) is not on the list. I think that all the fears on the list are “things that could happen to me” is a good indicator about how self-absorbed our society has become.

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